Rowan Rises on Plans to Try to Stay in S&P 500: Dallas Mover

April 12 (Bloomberg) -- Rowan Companies Inc., the offshore
drilling contractor planning to move its legal domicile to the
U.K., rose the most in more than eight months after announcing
it will delay the proposed shift until next month in an effort
to stay on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

The shares climbed 9.7 percent to $33.99 at the close in
New York, the most since Aug. 9.

The company needs more time to complete the paperwork to
stay in the “prestigious” S&P 500 Index, Suzanne Spera, a
spokeswoman for the Houston-based drilling contractor, said in a
telephone interview today.

“There’s only so many slots” on the index, she said.
“We’d prefer not to lose that. There are shareholders who are
sensitive to that.”

Rowan is pursuing a plan to exchange current shares for
Class A shares in order to remain in the S&P 500 Index on the
New York Stock Exchange, according to a statement earlier today.
It originally planned to exchange U.S. stock for American
depositary shares.

“If they’re able to achieve this Class A share structure,
we shouldn’t see the selling pressure as the index funds would
not be forced to sell,” Trey Stolz, an analyst at Iberia
Capital Partners in New Orleans, said in a telephone interview.
He rates the shares at outperform, which means investors should
buy the stock, and owns none, he said.

The company is moving to be closer to customers in the
U.K., Europe and Egypt. About 81 percent of sales this year are
expected to come from outside the U.S., up from 10 percent in
2004, the company said Feb. 28.

The move requires the support of a majority of
shareholders, expected at an April 16 meeting. Rowan is legally
domiciled in Delaware and wants to change that to the U.K. No
senior management will relocate, Chief Executive Officer Matt
Ralls said on conference call on Feb. 28.